Capital

A Visit to Addis Ababa in 1900

Ethiopia is a venerably old country, but its present capital Addis Ababa, dear Reader, is relatively new. Founded in 1887, Addis Ababa was even newer in 1900 when it was visited by the British big-game hunter Percy Powell-Cotton.
Given that occupation as a slaughter of innocent animals many readers may dismiss him as a brute about whom they would Wish to Hear as Little as Possible. He was, however, a not uninteresting individual: a Fellow of two British learned societies: the Royal Zoological Society and the Royal Geographical; the author of an engaging travel book – A Sporting Trip through Abyssinia (London, 1902); and the founder of an ethnographic museum – in Kent, England.
Powell-Cotton entered Addis Ababa on mule-back in 1900. He gives us an interesting account of the route into the capital from the North (by the road past the present British Embassy, then known as the British Agency). He tells us that Menilek’s Gebi, or Palace, stood two miles to the west of the said Agency, and that the buildings of the town extended “quite that distance beyond it – yet within that area one finds stretches of half a mile with hardly a hut”. Addis Ababa thus struck him more like “a collection of villages than what we understand by a town”.
Describing the journey from the British Agency to Menilek’s Palace, he explains that he forded a stream running beside the British compound, after which he passed the Russian Embassy and the nearby Russian Red Cross hospital (now the Menilek Hospital) to the right, before descending by “a rough and slippery path to the bed of another shallow stream”, after which he ascended again “by an even worse track on the further side”. He then came to “a stretch of rough grass-land, with little huts and enclosures scattered over it, many of which are inhabited by men whose chief occupation is weaving”.
Beyond their looms, which were dug in the ground, he came to Menilek’s recently-built telephone office: “a large circular tucul, the roof supported inside by a ring of posts, on which are hung the rifles and shields of the guard”. Pointing to what he chose to describe as the “curious” mixture of “science and barbarism” apparent in this building Powell-Cotton writes:
“The visitor will find the latest invention in telegraphic and telephonic apparatus lying on tables made of rough packing-cases, side by side with a few amolé or salts [bars of rock salt then used instead of money] and a pile of cartridge-cases (both empty and full), which have been received in payment of messages sent. Besides the instruments in use materials of all sorts are scattered about – cells, insulators, receivers, call-bells, and so on; for here are kept the supplies for the smaller stations between this and Harrar [in fact more probably Dire Dawa]…
“In the same building is also the post office, where the mails… are dispatched and received from Harrar every ten days”.
Leaving the telegraph office, and crossing the road which ran northwards to Entotto, our traveller “plunged down a deep gulley between walls of clay and rock” [upper Churchill Road?] to reach “a large village” nestling beside a hill “crowned by St. George’s Church”. On the slope beyond the village lay open ground on which the city’s great market was held. [This market during the Italian Fascist occupation was moved to its present site much further to the west].
Beyond the market stood a “strong palisade of stone and wood surrounding the Customs-house”. Access to this building was on the western side of the market, through a stretch of ground where the horse and mule fair was held. A strong wooden gate gave access to a yard, with a large building in the centre, where officials sat on an open verandah. They were the functionaries who received the taxes on trade - and issued receipts for them. Opposite this structure lay “a long range of buildings in which merchandise was stored” – and where piles of elephant tusks could be seen in various corners.
A mile and a half to the west was located the house and shop of the leading French merchant, M Savouré, and further on the establishments of the city’s many Greek and Indian traders. [Also Armenians. But our author does not mention this.]
The Emperor’s Palace, Powell-Cotton learnt, stood on a low hill which was “entirely surrounded by an unclimbable stockade”, which consisted of a “dwarf stone wall, with upright poles built into it and laced together”. The whole of the lower part was protected with thorn bushes, in addition to a row of sharply pointed stakes projecting outwards.
The Palace walls had six “principal gates”, but the most important one was that to the northwest, facing the market [i.e. the main one today, through which cars enter] – and, when the Emperor was in residence, was “thronged from morning till night”.
Powell-Cotton dismounted in the shadow of the Hall of Justice, where the monarch or his Afa Negus, i.e. Lord Chief Justice, sat as the country’s supreme judge of appeal.
From there a narrow door led to a small, neatly kept court beside which one could see the Saganet, or Clock-tower, from which one passed to the Adarash, or Great Reception Hall.
Describing the Audience chamber, as he saw it in 1900, Powell-Cotton writes:
“The room is about 20 feet square. Towards the back, on the left, a private exit opens on to a flight of steps; at the bottom of this a path leads past several terraces, which were being laid out with flower-beds and fountains, to the private apartments of the palace. In general aspect this building resembles a Swiss chalet, while the ornamentation – more especially the wood-carving – is distinctly Indian in style. It is of octagonal form, and two storeys high; round the upper one runs a partly closed-in balcony, which, towards the east, is connected by a covered gallery…
“The Emperor’s apartments are situated on the southern side of the main portion and include a square summer house… The privacy of this part of the palace is ensured by high stone walls…”
Returning to the Palace’s overall importance, P.C. (if we may call him that) reports that it contained “a series of yards, in which are situated the different workshops, including the blacksmiths’ and the carpenters’, also stores of all sorts; next these comes the brew-house, where all the tej, tala and araki are prepared for the royal household. Close to this stands the largest store-house – a stone building of two floors, roofed with tiles; in this are kept the Emperors’ more perishable treasures. Beyond this the wood yard, filled with beautifully built stacks of fuel and thatching-grass, besides piles of building timber. On the right lie the royal gardens, containing many European fruit-trees and vegetables of all sorts; in these, it is said, the Empress takes a special interest”.
P.C., for his part, took immense interest in the Addis Ababa market, and, returning to that institution, writes: “of all the strange emporiums I have inspected, I think the great marketplace of the Emperor Menelik’s capital is the most interesting. Here one obtains a truer notion of the productive powers of the country, both in raw material and manufactured articles, and can learn better what foreign goods find a ready sale among the people, than in any of the many markets I have seen in four continents”.
Elaborating he continues:
“To the market place in Adis Ababa come grains and spices and condiments from every corner of the kingdom, coffee from Harrar and Lake Tana, cotton from the banks of the Blue Nile, while salt from the north of Tigré is the current change for a dollar,... Fine cotton shammas, heavy burnouses of black, blanket-like cloth, jewellery and arms, saddlery and ploughs, all are here. In fact here you can feel the commercial pulse of Abyssinia, gain some insight into the present state of her civilization, and gather what she wants from the foreigner and what she has to offer in exchange”.
To learn more of this, dear Reader. you have to be-take yourself to the Powell-Cotton Museum in Birchington, Kent!